New from Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Hi,

Just found this forum and here is my introduction. I’ve done some container gardening over the past several years in city picker boxes. I started them up again a few weeks ago, but have decided it’s time to expand. We started looking into making a raised bed and were getting ready to build it, when I came across info on the SFG method. Luckily we hadn’t gotten to far along in our plans! So now I’m trying to figure everything out and hopefully get some stuff planted before it’s too late. I’m sure I’ll be asking a lot of question.

Tammy

Welcome from Ohio, Tammy!  So glad you found us! You'll find a lot of friendly help here, and love to see pictures of your beds as you progress.

Be sure to check out the Regional Forum for your area, which is most likely the Southern California & Inland Vallys, where gardeners can provide unique perspective based on your growing conditions.

Hi Tammy. Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Glad you've joined us!

Please also check the archives for LOTS of great information....

Looking forward to seeing your garden!

Welcome to the forum, Tammy!  So glad you found SFG before embarking on your garden, it will save you so much work.  I would highly recommend getting a copy of The All New Square Foot Gardening method book, I have the 2nd edition.  Your library will either have it or can get it.  Lots of great information there from Mel Bartholomew, the brainchild of SFG.

Feel free to roam, chime in and keep us posted!  See you around! 

Thanks for the welcomes! I’m reading the 3rd edition of Mel’s book. There is so much information to process and I’m impatient to get started. We have decided on 2-4 4x4x6” raised beds using redwood. I was thinking of one with flowers for this summer and possibly a 4th to be ready for next year? Should I plant a cover crop or something if I don’t use it now? Just seems like a good idea to build the boxes and probably get the Mel’s mix now to avoid additional high delivery fees later. 

Next we need to decide on whether we should raise the beds off the ground or not. We do have some large pepper trees with roots at might be an issue. If we do raise them up off the ground, how high should we go? 

As for making the Mel’s mix, I found a bulk supplier of materials (O.F. Wolfingbarger) that has cow & chicken manure, vermiculite and peat moss. Would these be appropriate products to use? Not sure if the manures are composted? It also doesn’t specify if the vermiculite is course. I still need to recalculate the quantities needed to see if bulk is still the best option as I had been looking at longer and deeper beds. Anyone have suggestions of what else I should get and where I can get it for the missing items and if some of these are not appropriate? I don’t have any compost myself. I tried previously, but it didn’t work out. I’ll probably try again once I have the garden going. 

Thanks everyone for any help you can give!

Tammy

Here is a photo of our future garden space with the trees that I’m a little concerned about with the roots. The space we are using has a nice southern exposure and is in full sun pretty much all day except very early and very late in the day.